Do you have what it takes to be a Fight Night warrior? Fight Night is back - for our 12th year - on 23 May 2019. 18 fearless channel contenders will once again immerse themselves into the brutal world of boxing to raise money for their chosen charities.

Change is coming, as Microsoft is introducing new and extended support and service requirements for direct sellers. These new conditions will come at considerable cost to some partners - financially and in both time and manpower.

Download now to understand how the Microsoft CSP changes will impact your organisation.

To grow, to remain relevant to the customers, and to remain profitable, IT channels (in all their forms) will have to master a number of business model transformations in the cloud and digital transformation era. Read more to learn about the key transformations that IT channels will need to address, in order to bring new capabilities to customers and be successful in the future.

The campaign to give Manchester greater political autonomy has scored backing from none other than the channel's own Scott Fletcher. The boss of Mancunian reseller ANS argued securing "Devo Manc', as it has been dubbed, would benefit his "great city" by handing it powers over issues such as health, education and business support.

"Viva the Republic of Mancunia", a clearly worked-up Fletcher declared before - we can only presume - growing a beard, acquiring a beret and setting up camp in the foothills of the Peak District.

Forgetful salespeople

The sheer array of vendors that reseller sales staff must familiarise themselves with is mind-boggling. But there's good news for anyone struggling to tell their Acers from their Asuses or their Boxes from their Dropboxes. The average UK VAR now works with fewer vendors than they did two years ago, according to CRN research.

Johnny Reseller now carries 14 core vendors, down from 18 two years ago, with the number for security falling from above six to below four. This is also a welcome development for at least one member of the CRN team, who for their first few months in the industry thought HP and Hewlett-Packard were different companies.

Heron Tower residents

We all love it when a big US vendor announces a massive investment in the UK - unless it's CRM giant Salesforce.

The NYSE-listed goliath got on the wrong side of Heron Tower tenants when it reached a deal with the 46-storey skyscraper's owner to rename it "Salesforce Tower". Luckily for existing residents - some of which compete directly with Salesforce - the City of London blocked the move last month. In the most incongruously upbeat PR statement ever, Salesforce said it was "pleased" with the decision.

BAD TIMES

Idiot reseller staff

Are you an IT salesperson who's still trying to rack up deals through traditional pipeline meetings? Then you're also an idiot!

Not our term, but the nomenclature employed by distinguished Gartner analyst Tiffani Bova, who warned at an IT Europa summit that the old style of meetings are "a complete waste of time" because increasingly well-informed customers are in fact now "cycling in and out".

We're with you, Tiffani, and we'd go one further by lobbying for a ban on the word "pipeline" outside the oil and gas or colonic irrigation industries.

Middle managers

Any aspiring David Brents out there had best give the IT industry a wide berth. According to recruiter Randstad Technologies, the tech sector falls below the UK average of 4.4 management layers, averaging 3.5 layers, as middle-management tiers are "slowly squeezed".

"Tech employers have been streamlining their business models since the recession, and one of the key ways of doing this has been to reduce layers of management," burbled Randstad bossman Mike Beresford. As Brent himself would probably testify, sometimes even having 71.4 per cent of the population behind you isn't enough to save your job.

Samsung

Predictions that Sony would not be the only vendor to flee the PC market this year have been realised as Samsung announced it is quitting the European notebook game.

The Korean vendor confirmed to CRN that it is discontinuing sales of all laptops - including Chromebooks - in the region in response to local market conditions. We can't help thinking that with PC sales seemingly on the up, Samsung's sense of timing is worse than Prince Phillip's.